


Vek zhivi, vek uchis

by pok3d3x



Series: Chordae Tendineae [5]
Category: Yu-Gi-Oh!
Genre: Candleshipping, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Established Relationship, Euroshipping, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Post-Canon, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-22
Updated: 2016-09-08
Packaged: 2018-07-15 08:20:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 12
Words: 19,212
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7214857
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pok3d3x/pseuds/pok3d3x
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Век живи́ — век учи́сь - Vek zhivi, vek uchis - Russian for: Live for a century, learn for a century. It has a more positive connotation that English's Live and Learn.</p><p>Some things take more than a century to learn. The thief is quite familiar with this, and those who know him are more so. It's never too late to get started though.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Sugary Sweet

**Author's Note:**

> And here it is! Thanks for sticking with me the whole way here!
> 
> I drew two scenes from this series. If you're interested, they're posted to my tumblr: tamiyos-pokedex.tumblr.com/tagged/chordae_tendineae  
> I periodically post or reblog things to that tag #chordae_tendineae
> 
> Also, I commissioned one of my favorite artists to draw a scene from chapter three of l'art pour l'art! Please check it out, she's an amazing artist and I'm so happy to see the scene come to life by her hand!  
> http://kintatsujo.tumblr.com/post/146206841017/aaaand-heres-the-commission-i-was-doing-for

Bakura blinked to consciousness, a confusing mixture of pain and pleasantness around him. His arm and face hurt, a slight throb through most of it but a few areas of cold rawness littering his lip and brow. 

The most enticingly sweet smell made him look down at a large slab of pancakes with almost more whipped topping than pancake and a mixed berry glaze richly coloring the desert. He noticed as he looked down that he was starving and that another plate was set up across from him with noticeably no cream and only a few pieces of fresh fruit.

The hazy confusion of having been blacked out and being in a completely new place in the middle of doing something was familiar, and Bakura faintly wished he'd awoken in bed so at least it would just feel like waking from a dream.

"Why…" He couldn't finish his question. He didn't know what he was most confused about. Why was he in the sunroom with a stack of pancakes. Why did his face feel like he wiped out bicycling? He looked to Kaiba, squinting eyes and crinkled brow filling in more than words ever could.

Kaiba looked to the nearest servant and motioned deftly for his service. With a dry, explanatory voice, Kaiba said," The thief refused to take more painkillers even though I assured him they would take an hour to come into effect. I'm sorry, I tried my best to talk him into it. He suggested you'd feel better if you at least woke up to desert."

Bakura accepted two pills from the butler, his mind still reeling. Swallowing them down with apple juice before him, Bakura stared back at his plate, still trying to piece together his situation.

It was a lovely set up, with a gorgeous glass table arranged for kings in the middle of his favorite room. The many flowering plants that had been specially picked out to match style and scent only enhanced the appetizing food in front of him. It was all too much though, and Kaiba caught on quickly.

"This must be rather odd," he offered apologetically.

Bakura shook his head, but the stiffness in his neck stopped him unnaturally early. He rubbed at his neck half heartedly, thinking about what he wanted to say before he said it. "It's far better than all the times before, but coming to like this is still odd. I don't know how long I've been out, or what I've been doing. Why I'm here. I mean, you've told me a little, but… It's just. I don't know if I can get used to this. I didn't realize how exhausted I was, that I was letting my soul go dark. Recently, when I have, I've woken up like from sleep, and I think that's easier."

Kaiba nodded, guiltily thinking he could have done a better job trying to get the thief to cooperate with him or make waking less jarring at least. 

"B-but this is really nice," Bakura eagerly tagged on, afraid of sounding ungrateful.

Kaiba shook his head dismissively, not wanting Bakura to force out praise. He admittedly hadn't known the best course of action, making course adjustments as new problems popped up here and there. He'd never intended for Bakura to wake up confused and in pain directly because of his involvement. He didn't know what to say though, how to make this better.

Casting his eyes down at the gorgeous plate of pancakes, Bakura also wondered if he should try and say something to help. Honestly, he wasn't upset or anything, just ready to be done with the pain that was seeping from his arm and face. And joints. Actually, he was starting to think he really did wipe out bicycling. He felt all the stiff soreness of taking an impact.

He quietly gave thanks, then grabbed his utensils and began to cut a few pieces free so he could start eating his consolation dessert. Bakura remained awkwardly quiet, still thinking how he could phrase assurance that everything was alright. He was the one to put his soul under, even if it was by mistake, so he couldn't be mad that he was disoriented now. It would have been nice if the thief would have taken their prescribed medicine, but he could discuss that with him later. Maybe they could update the rules.

Standing so he could lean across the table, Kaiba reached for Bakura's hands and quickly began," Let me, your arm has to be quite sore-"

Bakura was insisting that he was really fine as he raised his hands in a gesture of "no worries", when he accidently bumped arms with Kaiba. He noticed the flash of discomfort in the other's eyes. It edged on almost painful.

There was no way his gentle nudge to Kaiba should have hurt him so. With curious eyes, he set his silverware down and asked," What's wrong with your arm?" He was supposed to be the injured one here.

"Nothing," Kaiba said calmly, but Bakura saw how his eyes flickered down tensely.

Bakura reached forward slowly, allowing plenty of time for Kaiba to pull away if he chose, then undid the cuff's buttons and pushed the sleeve back to reveal bands of bruising. They weren't there before his slumber, Bakura was certain of it. He'd held Kaiba's arm for support and Kaiba hadn't batted an eyelash.

Bakura made eye contact, his brow raising with concern and a silent plea for an explanation. When Kaiba said nothing, Bakura swallowed hard and placed his good hand over the mark, curling his fingers gently over the bands of reddish purple. It was a perfect match.

Bakura recoiled like he'd been burned, immediately covering a gasp and looking away like he could wish the reveal out of existence. "He hurt you, didn't he?" he cried as he looked back. "He's hurting people, he's using me to hurt people again!"

"He was drugged," Kaiba said softly, almost defending the thief.

"That's no excuse."

Kaiba tried again to downplay it. "It's a long story."

"What happened?" Bakura held a strong gaze on Kaiba, waiting expectantly for the other to comply. He needed an explanation. He would pry it out of one of them.

Scowling as he fixed his sleeve, Kaiba said," We got into a fight." His gaze softened and he tagged on," We already had your arm checked out, and it's fine. Your lip needed two stitches though." The same sore that Bakura had bitten into his lip the day of the accident had been healing fairly well until it met marble with force.

Bakura subconsciously reached up to the injury, lightly pressing his fingers to the sticky wound. Woah, he'd have to check that out. It had to look cool from the brief impression he got with cursory fingers. "Why did you get in a fist fight with the thief?"

Kaiba sat back down and crossed his arms. It was unpleasant to be grilled, but he couldn't say he blamed Bakura one bit. One had to have a lot of questions in his situation. "We had a disagreement about personal space," he answered. 

With a comically serious tone, Kaiba also noted," The thief shouldn't be in control while you're on opioids. Or drunk. Actually, I think we should rule out all depressants as well."

Bakura had obviously missed quite a bit. Half-heartedly returning to his pancakes, or more accurately, stabbing one piece and aimlessly collecting the berry syrup with it but never taking a bite, Bakura sighed and said," Honestly, maybe it's best I don't know everything. Filling in the blank spots always just ends up in everyone involved getting upset." He didn't want to hear about what kind of trespasses against each other they'd committed. He was tired, and he just wanted some peace to set in.

Kaiba still looked uncomfortable, shifting in his seat a little in a manner unlike his typical professional self. Bakura may have decided not to be filled in, but Kaiba still felt there was some basic information he should know. "I punched you in the jaw," he admitted.

Bakura looked up coldly. It didn't matter how friendly the thief became, Bakura would always be sensitive to being confused with the thief in any sense. "I wasn't present. He's not me." 

Internally scolding himself for making such a basic slip-up when they'd worked on the language around Bakura and the thief months ago, Kaiba apologized softly.

Bakura considered for half a second of getting up and leaving. He needed to talk to the thief, and he was only getting more upset as he went along with this forced setup of nicety. The meal and the surroundings were beautiful, but they couldn't mask his confusion or pain, and they could keep every sentence they exchanged from making things worse as he got more and more concerned. He knew he could leave at anytime he wanted, but also, he couldn't. It would be too hard for him to do that to Kaiba, especially with how Kaiba cutting him out still hurt him and echoed in his mind.

"I thought you guys were getting along now," Bakura said after a long silence. The thief returning was like introducing a new pet to the household. 

"He knows how to get along with others just about as well as he knows Greek." Kaiba paused and added," Admittedly, my Greek isn't very great either, nor is… Well, our pancakes are getting cold."

Bakura smiled ruefully, eyebrows drawn up in sad amusement. They all had some work ahead of them, but they were trying their best. Taking another bite of his food, now noticing just how much it felt like he was being stabbed in the lip since the stitches had been pointed out, Bakura tried to focus on the sweetness and ignore the many unpleasantries his life kept offering.


	2. Insert Coin

Kaiba sat alone, staring at his phone like it was a venomous snake poised to strike. A while back, only because Bakura encouraged him to, Kaiba had agreed to joining a group chat with everyone else. It was vaguely irritating receiving so many notifications that had nothing to do with him; Jounouchi would frequently message the whole group if he had to contact one person in it, and they all had a tendency to continue long pointless conversations to the point of redundant death.

He had yet to actually post a single comment, promptly reading everyone else's but refraining from direct interaction. Today, he was considering breaking that norm. He typed his proposed message in what he found distressingly close to a half an hour. 

He had cut the proposed message enough times that it had become a pattern of copy, select, delete, paste, and Kaiba rolled his eyes at his own indecision. This wasn't like him. Though, suggesting to hang out together wasn't like him either. Growing irritated with himself, he decided he didn't need to spend another half an hour debating to paste it or not. It'd been an incredible waste of time already.

Holding his thumb to the warm glass, he brought up the option to paste from clipboard and sent his invitation quickly before he could change his mind.

[ _Thunder Break has offered backstage tickets to their concert if we were still interested._ ]

It took minutes before it was seen, but the second it was, excited emoticons and words flooded his phone. Kaiba let out a sigh of relief. He still hadn't really come around fully to believing that he was wanted in their group, it just seemed too surreal and like a fairytale to seamlessly fold into the group of people he attempted to murder not so long ago, but he was a man of science. 

Observations so far lead to the conclusion that Bakura was right, and like Darwin before him, he had to believe what he saw rather than what he had believed on the onset. It tempered his anxiety at the very least, if he could reason that repeated outings showed a trend of him being accepted and even welcomed. He just had to believe what his recordings dictated, or at least accept them.

The concert was still a month away, but that just gave him time to square away details, such as accommodations and food since it would be a three day event. It also gave him time to prepare himself.

~~  
~~

Bakura was amazed by how different Kaiba looked in a hole riddled sweatshirt and ripped up jeans. He sported large headphones that filtered the noise around him according to his specially programmed algorithms to allow only the sound he was interested in. A crowded arcade ceased being enjoyable quickly if he didn't have them.

Wanting in on the fun too, Bakura wore his hair tucked up in a baseball cap and sports jacket. At first he'd felt a little ridiculous, like he was trying too hard to wear something that was not his style, but if Kaiba could get over not wearing anything with a buckle, he could get over a cap and coat.

Kaiba's body language was so different. He was still confident, but everything he did was reserved like he had a limited amount of motion allotted for the day. He didn't command attention to himself like he usually did. He seemed slightly smaller in a way, not taking so much space up as typical with his small movements and outfit that didn't grab attention.

" _He looks like a prick and you look like your mother dressed you_ ," the thief commented as he came out to see the arcade.

"She would have been proud. She never liked my long hair," Bakura murmured off hand, ignoring the thief's attempt to ruin his time. He was just pouting because Bakura won first turn in arcade. Returning his attention to the physical world and its people, he asked Kaiba," So which first? Which one's your favorite?"

"I don't have a favorite," Kaiba answered. " I usually watch for a bit. See if any of my scores have been bested."

Even his speech was different. He spoke lighter, and glided over sounds quickly like he didn't have enough time to speak as gallantly as normal.

" _This is really fun_ ," the thief sighed as they hung about the claw machines scouting the high scores.

"He already warned you that you may not be up to speed for this," Bakura mumbled back wryly, glad for the loudness all around him so no one could hear him talking to himself. He spotted a racing game with KAI in second and pointed it out subtly. Kaiba nodded and looked about for any other offenders. When he waited so long between visits, there were usually two or three games that need his attention.

It was worth waiting though. Once he entered his name as KAI, he'd be swarmed, and would want to quickly play his games so he didn't give adequate time to be recognized. Looking to Bakura, he explained," We'll want to be leaving pretty quickly after I start. Anything you want to do first?"

"No, I'm fine just watching." Arcade games really weren't his forté. He did love video games, but he mostly played turn based RPG's, life sims, and first person horror games. Those skills really didn't lend themselves well to racing or bashing.

"Well, I believe it's time to leave the thief behind in Italy, then," Kaiba said softly, eyeing up two free spots at the racing corner.

"All yours," Bakura said with a screwed up smile, able to see the frustration radiating off of the thief. In a flash he was staring from outside his body, seeing how the thief was already walking over to claim their spots with a sour scowl. Bakura rolled his eyes as he could hear the pissed off mumble of," I'll show you…"

The played three games before the thief rage quitted.

"I swear the stupid pres-"

" _We're playing rolls_ ," Bakura reminded before the thief could spill that KAI was the president of anything.

Kaiba made an offhand comment about that being an amusingly simple warm up as he began to play single player to try for a high score. He easily regained his place of first through third.

"He has to be cheating," the thief muttered as he sulkingly watched Kaiba run through the letters to add his name to the list yet again.

"Since when has being better been considered cheating," Kaiba deadpanned, hitting enter on his name. 

"That game next," the thief declared, pointing to a fighting game.

Kaiba smirked and agreed. The thief didn't need to know that he held that record world wide until after he lost.

Like the racing game before, the thief stood very little chance and it was clear from the start. He often knew what he wanted to do, but had troubles executing. The control felt so foreign, and though he had an amazing sleight of hand, he didn't have the muscle memory to keep up with Kaiba.

After four more losses, he had to to admit utter defeat, but tagged on," I may not be able to win at these video games, but I'd like to see you take me on as your Dark Master in Monster World!"

Kaiba didn't immediately know how to respond, wary of the assumably aware Bakura's feelings. They'd thoroughly spoke of and gone through figurine making, and Bakura had even shown off his table now, but they had yet to talk of playing. He had an appearance to keep up though with the gathering crowds.

Gesturing around the arcade, he said," You name a game. If it's here, I'll play." He'd deal with Monster World later when he could consult Bakura.

"I think you're gathering quite the following," the thief observed, not very big on large audiences himself.

Kaiba agreed," You're right. Maybe we should go." He'd taken care of the one high score table he'd needed to, and thrashed the thief at two separate games. It was a complete day. As they decided on leaving, he grabbed his companion's hand, whoever was in control, and sneaked out the back to a ready car.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thunder Break is the Japanese name of Raigeki Break. I like when authors use well known cards as important names of things. It's almost a mythology gag, and I always enjoy references (thus why my Homestuck writing is ridiculously stuffed with references). 
> 
> Possibly attending a concert together is a callback to chapter 3 of l'art pour l'art, by the way. I know it's been a while uwu;


	3. Yarn

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TW for scars and mentions of implied abuse

Bakura woke lightly to the sound of pained moans, soft and muffled like they were trying to be hidden. Looking over to his side, blinking away idle tears from sleep, Bakura made out Kaiba's sleeping form. He was curled up, squeezing a pillow to his chest and burying his face in it as he groaned again.

Bakura leaned up on his elbows, frowning sadly as Kaiba shivered violently. He rolled onto his side so he could lay a hand on Kaiba's shoulder supportively, but wasn't surprised as Kaiba flinched and Bakura pulled his hand away quickly.

Sitting up with a small pout on his face, he thought of how best to help. His eyes followed the many scars that littered Kaiba's back, having memorized them by heart as well as the few on his chest and upper arms.

It was hot, and Kaiba often opted to sleep shirtless now that they were so comfortable together. Bakura didn't, not liking his chest exposed. The first night he'd slipped into bed with no shirt, he'd eyed Bakura nervously, waiting for a comment. No comment ever came, and Bakura never intended to.

All he knew for sure was they sometimes hurt at night, typically alongside a nightmare, and that sometimes massaging helped.

"M-my back," Kaiba whimpered after a particularly harsh shiver and accompanying groan. He seemed on the verge of consciousness, but slipped back into his trembling sleep.

"Shh, it's okay. I'm here with you," Bakura assured him softly, drawing close and softly pressing his fingers splayed out across his back. The little bands of cold seemed to ground Kaiba. 

With his arm as it was, Bakura could only massage one handed, but he hoped it would still be enough. He began to use his palm for deep circles around either shoulder blade and then ran light squeezing fingers down either side of his back. Broad motions were made first, covering wide areas, then he moved onto smaller and more precise massaging.

He massaged up to the base of his skull and down to his hips, thumb and finger on either side of his spine rubbing in small circles as they walked their way down his back. Kaiba's back, so tense as it had been, began to become putty in his hands. It was much more difficult one handed, and it took a lot longer, but Bakura was getting rather good at massaging. He was happy to do it for Kaiba, seeing that it clearly helped the flares of pain.

" _What's with his scars_ ," the thief asked groggily, slow to wake up tonight.

"I don't know, I haven't asked," Bakura mumbled back, careful not to raise his voice enough to wake Kaiba.

The thief's voice raised with surprise as he asked," _Really?_ " Where did his curious host go?

"He doesn't ask about mine," Bakura explained softly, obvious relief in his voice. In the beginning he'd been nervous to change in front of him, even if they didn't really look at each other as they did so, since he didn't want any questions about his chest. If Kaiba noticed, he never mentioned it.

The thief looked at Kaiba with distant and calculating eyes. He also found himself thinking of his landlord's apparent embarrassment of the scars he'd left with the Ring. Those scars had never bothered him, he hadn't thought of the fact they may bother Bakura. 

Come to think of it, he couldn't think of Bakura letting his chest be seen in general. Bakura never went to the beach when invited last month. He cowered in the gym locker room, always having his next shirt ready for a seamless transition. He'd thought it was just to hide the Ring since Yuugi and friends didn't know it was back.

Reaching out with a ghostly hand and idly tracing one particularly nasty looking scar that spanned across Kaiba's entire back, the thief observed how it was stretched enough it was almost tattered, reaching across like yarn. " _They look like_ -" he began to comment, but Bakura quickly cut him off.

"I know what they look like," Bakura interrupted, almost too loud. He didn't need the thief's two cents to confirm that they looked like _that_. He'd read enough books and seen enough to TV to know the thin but raised lines across his back looked like old whipping scars. He tried not to think about them since Kaiba never mentioned them.

Five large scars were stretched out across his back, cruel lines that looked painful even though they were healed. Countless smaller ones that were faint changes in color laced over each other in every direction. There were other scars didn't quite match, but Bakura assumed they probably came from the same place.

If Kaiba didn't want to talk about it, he wasn't going to. He wouldn't bring it up to Kaiba, and he wasn't going to discuss it behind his back with the thief.

Bakura continued his ministrations into the night, now relaxedly massaging Kaiba's back since the flare of pain seemed to have quelled, until he drowsily fell back asleep collapsed over his partner.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm going to upload another chapter with in an hour or two since I hate leaving off on this kind of subject. after my next chapter, I'll probably be gone for a month or so. I'm in finals for my study abroad program and after that, I have like three days before I return to America, at which point I will be going straight into camping for two weeks.


	4. Creep

Bakura fed the machine a couple one thousand yen bills right away, knowing that the thief would never be content with just ten plays. Collecting the silver coins as they rattled into the collecting cup, Bakura reminded," Remember what the doctor said. We're fine to play until the pain-"

" _Becomes too much. I know_ ," the thief hastily agreed. They both knew his pain tolerance far exceeded what the doctor could have possibly expected, and that the thief was just going to play until the strain affected his coordination.

Even though he knew it was a lost cause, Bakura implored," Actually follow the advice please. I want to get out of this cast."

"Hey, why're talking to yourself?" A boy about his age asked, leaning against the coin machine like he was hot stuff.

" _Hey_."

Stretching into the physical body, the thief casually answered," Just going over how I'll humiliate you when I thrash you. Pick your game."

Bakura stood just behind the thief and watched as the thief swindled his way into free games with the classic strategy of faking poor skill before raising the stakes. It amused him how serious the thief was getting about arcade games. He really was getting quite good at many of them, and though his scores never beat KAI, they were getting close.

He was happy that the thief had something he could really get into that didn't involve revenge or breaking the law. Maybe it was just because he was an obsessive person himself and thus couldn't imagine being happy without his favorite things to be fanatic over, but he was really happy about the thief getting a hobby. Healthy competition was good for a person.

There was something kind of funny about watching how animated and determined the thief got about something that was so inconsequential in the long run, like he didn't know how to enjoy something mellowly. Bakura let himself wonder how this same zealousness translated to before. How the now amusing glee would have been terrifying and sadistic. How his smiles that were now a just a little fanatical, would have been like that of a slasher. 

The thief got bored of creaming other players, instead just focusing on trying to get a higher score. He got close to KAI in many games, but he had yet to surpass a single one. His best was the racing game in the far back, and he held fourth place in it now.

It had been quite the journey over the last month, watching the thief go from so bad that he glitched the car out from riding against the barriers too much, to knowing when to drop in speed to smoothly hug the turns. 

"I did it!" He abruptly whooped as he crossed the finish line. He hit the steering wheel excitedly as he let out a laugh that showed no sign of stopping. Quickly spinning through the letters, he entered TKB into first place. 

As the thief continued to cackle like he'd gone mad, Bakura complained," _People might know me here._ "

Quieting down a little, the thief still reveled in his win. "I can't wait until the stupide pres-" He pursed his lips and rolled his eyes at Bakura's quick gesture to not say more. Right, they had to maintain his secret identity. "I can't wait until he sees my score. It's over ten seconds faster than his!" He laughed victoriously again.

Bakura smiled warmly, and congratulated him. He seemed honestly proud, and Bakura was happy for him. Seeing him so innocently happy, even if it was a little spiteful, was worth all the emotional turmoil his return had brought and gave him hope for the future.

The pleasant contemplation fell from his mind as he swore under his breath like anyone but the thief could hear him.

"Hmm? What is it?" The thief was playing another game and didn't look away from the task at hand. His one hundred yen wasn't going to be wasted on anything less than an interesting maiming.

" _Jou and Honda are here._ "

The thief made a small mistake and his car took long enough to get unstuck that he knew it cost him even third place. He tsked under his breath, but kept going in hopes of fourth.

" _What do I do? I still haven't figured out how to tell them about you._ "

The thief shrugged, only half paying attention. After he cleared the last lap, he sighed and slowly entered his high score, disappointed to only get fifth. He was first, fourth, and fifth place now, but _still_. He'd wanted another score to knock KAI down another notch.

Bakura was a little panicky. " _They saw us. You. Whatever. They're coming this way._ "

Looking over his shoulder discreetly, he mumbled back," Why don't you just take over?" They had definitely seen him, but they weren't in hearing range yet.

" _They saw you get a high score. I can't explain how I've filled the high score table, and what if they ask me to play with them? I'm complete rubbish at most of these games._ "

"Promise you won't get mad?"

" _At what?_ "

"Me," the thief scoffed like it was the only obvious answer.

Bakura felt he was more than justified in asking," _What are you planning?_ "

The thief shifted in his seat awkwardly. "Just leave it to me, okay? Don't be mad at me afterwards." The last sentence was as close as the thief could bare to come to a plea.

Bakura snorted and asked," _No one gets hurt?_ " Receiving only a curt nod, Bakura realized they must be in range of his friend's hearing. " _Okay_ ," he agreed.

"Honda, Jounouchi! It's good to see you!" The thief's face echoed his jubilant tone, and it was uncanny for Bakura to see after months of being upset how darkly the thief twisted his face.

"Bakura! I didn't know you played at this arcade," Honda exclaimed, coming up and clapping the thief's shoulder.

Bakura knew how the thief didn't like to be touched, how he avidly avoided it, but he rolled with it and even briefly put a hand over Honda's familiarly. The thief's whole manner of speech and body language had shifted. His eyes seemed warm as he put effort to mirror a smile in them so his grin didn't look fake or strained. He let his shoulders droop, and he didn't hold his chin high like he was looking down on everyone else. 

"Well, since we've started hanging out with Kaiba more, I've gained a new appreciation for arcade games." The thief offered a soft chuckle. "I definitely seemed quite out of place when I first started playing."

"Are those scores _yours_?" Jounouchi pointed to the screen as it flashed the score table with multiple TKB's spattered across the otherwise full KAI board. He sounded quite impressed, and the thief couldn't help but grin a little too proudly. "I can't believe you beat K-"

"What's TKB stand for?"

Honda was asking the real questions, Bakura mused, a little curious himself. He had never commented on it, but he was kind of glad to be getting an explanation soon. Bakura wished there was a way to thank him without bringing up that he was neglecting to mention the thief's presence, or being weird about it.

Running his hand through his hair and putting on a facade of embarrassment, the thief answered," Well, you know the other me was, like, a thief back in Egypt? It just sounded kind of cool, I don't know. Thief King Bakura, would be a good rogue character… Like, it beat B K R or RYO. It might be lame."

"Nah, man. It's cool," Jounouchi assured him. He laughed and added," So long as you don't start acting like him."

"Just the name," the thief promised softly, the ghost of a smile on his lips.

Bakura stood quietly behind him, his stomach turning a little. The thief was a good actor, no wonder his friends were fooled. He wasn't emulating him perfectly though; he was picking out distinct traits people who knew him would expect out of Bakura and focusing on them. Despite not wanting things to go badly, Bakura almost wanted Jounouchi or Honda to notice something was off. How could his closest friends not realize this wasn't him?

They did indeed challenge the thief to some games, and the thief proudly proclaimed, then timidly said he was joking, that he could beat them at any game. First, racing since he already had the machine secured. Next, a rhythm game because Jounouchi questioned _any game_ , and the thief wouldn't back down from his boast. He made up for the broken arm by comboing his right hand and elbow and knowing all the songs by heart too well. Honda gave in that Bakura was unbeatable after the thief thoroughly destroyed them at a space shooting game.

"I want to see you dance," Jounouchi said with a smirk, pointing to the dancing game across the room. He wished Anzu was here so that _someone_ could beat Bakura at a game.

"Ah, sorry. I can't. My-" he froze and Bakura realized that he almost slipped out '"landlord". Clearing his throat, the thief laughed and excused," Tickle in my throat. My doctor might have something to say about me playing that game right now." They hadn't received any such orders, but the thief knew that jumping around like that would make his arm sore, and he knew that Bakura had to take harder painkillers if the pain got too bad. Also, he found himself genuinely taking care not to hurt his body because Bakura didn't like it. "Once I get this cast off though, you're game."

"Way too good at games and a little prideful? You're not the other Bakura, are you?" Honda elbowed the thief jokingly. The King of Thieves had been brought up, he was on everyone's minds.

Laughing along like a huge revelation hadn't just been stumbled over, the thief joked right back," Don't let Jounouchi hear you bringing up ghosts like that."

Jounouchi shivered and sputtered," Oh, god. Can you even imagine being haunted by that creep's ghost?"

Bakura looked to the thief with a bit of concern, but the thief just laughed along with Honda, both taking turns pretending to be haunted by the Spirit of the Ring. The thief's pretending to be Bakura, pretending to be an over the top Other Bakura was kind of funny, until Bakura wondered if that was really how he saw himself. They were making fun of the thief rather hard, and Bakura couldn't help but wonder how the thief really felt about this, underneath his seamless acting.

"As much fun as the two of you lunatics celebrating his memory is, I have to get going," Jounouchi said as he shoved his hands in his pockets. He wasn't freaked out by their impersonations of the Other Baura. Nope, not him. What was scary about a ghostly version of a sado-masochist who wanted to end all life on earth? "Gotta' pick up Shizuka from her appointment."

Honda nodded, crossing his arms thoughtfully. "How are her eyes holding up?"

"So far, so good," Jounouchi said optimistically. "Last appointment they said she was still 20/20, and if she passes today's tests, they say she's probably golden for decades to come."

"That's great to hear! I bet she'll ace it," the thief encouraged in too sugary a voice.

Bakura wondered if this fake version of him was the one that his friends knew. If they sometimes were surprised by the real him, because they spent so long getting to know him while he was possessed. His stomach flopped some more.

Jounouchi smiled a little ruefully. He didn't know what he would do if he got anything less than stellar news. "Thanks, man. I really hope so."

"I should probably go as well," the thief excused. "I haven't exactly finished my report for Hashimoto's class yet." He remembered Bakura grumbling about having one anyways.

"Oh! I totally forgot about that report!" Honda ran a hand through his short hair, the very real look of panic taking hold of his features. 

"Well, rough night for all of us," Jounouchi said dryly. "Let's do this again sometime. Forget us, you are so taking Anzu on at dancing when that cast comes off." He directed a mockingly serious face at the thief and then laughed.

They all parted ways, and the thief waited until he was a ways apart before snickering and saying," That was actually rather fun, you know, aside from the huge facade and lying through my teeth the whole time. Oh, and before the grand ol' show of how wicked and ridiculous the Spirit of the Ring is. It was a great time. Let's do it again. Sign me up for never, and make sure to put my name down as Creep." His voice had started light and amused, but had quickly become bitter.

" _I'm sorry_ ," Bakura offered, frowning as he felt like that didn't really do anything to help.

Kicking a stone with extreme prejudice, the thief continued under his breath," It sure is a great thing that that awful thing is gone. Sure would be be just _awful_ to have to spend time enjoying themselves with that monstrous abomination."

" _To be fair, you tried to kill them on more than one occasion_."

"Sheesh, you make it sound like it was more than twice. Why don't I get the same 'they are really nice and forgiving' speech Kaiba gets?" He ruffled his hair a little before crossing his arms defensively.

" _Sorry… They_ are _forgiving, and I know they could find it in their hearts to forgive you. I just don't know how to tell them, and it won't exactly be an easy sell._ "

"Whatever," the thief dismissed stiffly," I don't care."

Before Bakura could say more, the thief sighed and said," I don't see why we have to tell them anyways. They're happy like this. Let them be ignorant. They don't have to know their most hated enemy survived." He scowled as he kept his gaze trained at the ground. They were almost home, and the thief looked forward to the isolation of their private space.

"I mean, they act tough, but I scare them," the thief continued with an aloof shrug. He thought about the kinds of things Honda spouted, pretending to be possessed by him. The ways he claimed he'd enjoy haunting Jounouchi, largely through cold blooded torture or psychological cruelty. The thief couldn't even deny that he'd partaken in such in the past, even the recent past. "I'm probably in their nightmares too."

Bakura didn't know what to say. His heart throbbed for how obviously upset the thief was, despite trying to play off like he was detached. " _At… at least you beat Kaiba at Speed 5_ ," Bakura offered weakly.

"Yeah…" The thief reached into their pocket for the apartment keys as he began climbing their outside stairs. He didn't sound half as enthused as he had earlier.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What the hell am I doing here?  
> I don't belong here.


	5. Rubber Duck

"Why are you awake," Bakura mumbled as he shuffled into Kaiba's office, stilling clutching a blanket around himself, refusing to wake up fully. 

"Ten in the morning is a perfectly normal time to be awake," Kaiba answered, still staring at his computer screen with the intensity of someone on the verge of curing cancer. Maybe he was.

"Not when you've been awake since five in the morning the day before- I don't think you even slept that night." Bakura sat down on the couch and let himself flop over. Today was a lazy day, and Kaiba was being too productive. "Come sit with me," he said softly, too tired to speak loudly.

Kaiba sighed, but indulged Bakura. He liked working at a desk, but Bakura liked cuddling in the morning. Love demanded sacrifices, or so he'd been told. Anyways, he didn't mind much, and the desk chair was beginning to get uncomfortable after four hours of not budging.

Bakura sat up to make room for Kaiba, but soon resumed his horizontal status after Kaiba settled into place with his laptop. "You should sleep," Bakura insisted," You've been up for, like, forty hours or something."

"Forty-one and twenty minutes," Kaiba corrected. He knew he wasn't helping his cause, but he was a painfully accurate person.

"Take a break," Bakura insisted, draping his casted arm over the keyboard so almost all the keys were covered.

"I have to work on this while it's all fresh in my brain. Sleep can wait," Kaiba argued.

"Sleep is good for you; you should try it."

Kaiba spared a glance to Bakura and smirked. "I believe that statement was the most hypocritical thing you have ever said." The man who had stayed up almost three days straight last month because he all of a sudden got inspiration for a cool campaign in Monster World should not be giving him health advice.

"We're talking about your unhealthy habits right now, not mine."

"It's the same habit."

"I will have none of your logical arguments. It's still morning," Bakura yawned, curling up on Kaiba's lap so he was more in the way of the laptop.

"I promise I'll sleep after I finish this."

Bakura surmised Kaiba must be stuck on something. He wasn't actively coding, just rereading over the same chunk of gibberish over and over. "Explain it to me," Bakura instructed, relenting and giving back control of the laptop in favor of cuddling even closer.

Like many codes, it started with a boolean statement. Bakura was pretty much lost from there, but he followed along enough that he could at least tell how Kaiba was jumping from one piece of information to the next. He would scroll back up to show Bakura the particular function he was describing as it became relevant again, and he would follow what he was reading with the cursor so Bakura could keep track of where they were.

In the middle of an otherwise very fluid description of a code that Bakura could only quote as doing _something_ , Kaiba abruptly fell silent mid sentence and stared at the screen like he may well just throw the computer across the room. It was tempting since his whole network was backed up to the millisecond.

Bakura waited a few seconds before asking," What is it?"

"I forgot an ampersand." His voice was empty, like a broken man finding out the key to his cell had been in his reach the whole time.

He held down shift and and pressed down the corresponding number key, hunting and pecking like he never did. With the new character in place, the code barely looked different.

Running the code to see if it worked, he groaned as it ran flawlessly. "I've been reading this code for over five hours trying to figure out why it wouldn't work."

"Happy to help."

Kaiba closed his laptop and set it on the coffee table, glaring at it like it was disgusting and an eyesore. 

Curling up his legs opposite of Bakura's, he mumbled," Share the blanket." Bakura won, it was time for sleep. Only a short nap, he told himself, but soon they were sprawled the full length of the couch, hugging close, and Kaiba could feel deep sleep approach.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Rubber Duck Debugging is a thing and I love it. Photos of some of the ridiculous set ups programmers create with their favorite rubber ducks give me life.
> 
> As the school year is almost upon us, my posting will probably even out a little, but fear not, I am still actively working on this fic and have all the plot points sketched out! I should be posting a chapter about once a week. I'll shoot for Wednesdays. Thanks again for all of your support. Every kudo and comment has been so motivating, I would have never been able to get this far without you guys!


	6. Running in Circles

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Last chapter ended with getting to sleep as the objective, now it's waking up time.
> 
> I'm really happy to get this out on the projected date, and I'm pretty confident I'll get out the next one on Wednesday too! :)
> 
> TW for unwanted intimacy and dominant displays of being an asshole.

"You are insane," Bakura complained as he pulled the pillow over his head.

Kaiba smirked and commented," People don't usually cite my attention to fitness for allegated insanity." Pulling the pillow away so he could kiss Bakura's forehead in a light plea for forgiveness, he promised," I'll try not to wake you next time." He was usually so good about slipping out unnoticed and crawling back into bed before Bakura woke up.

" _Why are we awake? Is the sun even up_ ," the thief asked, stifling a yawn as he appeared on the corner of the bed.

"He wants to lift weights or jump rope or some other disgustingly healthy thing," Bakura mumbled, rolling on to his side and trying to call back sleep.

"Running and a few calisthenics today," Kaiba corrected. "Weight training is on tuesdays."

" _I like running_."

Bakura opened one eye and peered at the thief. "Go wild," he decided, switching out groggily. " _But don't bother me until you're showered and breakfast is on the table_."

It didn't escape Kaiba's notice how suddenly alert Bakura's body was as he sat up, and quickly realized it was the thief. He simply raised an eyebrow and hummed questioningly, waiting for an explanation.

Stretching before throwing the covers over Kaiba, the thief got to his feet and asked," So how does this work? You have your own private gym hidden away?"

Pulling the blankets away, Kaiba blandly answered," Yes. It's downstairs." It's not like he could just get a membership to some random gym in the prefecture and go any day without being swarmed by the media. 

The thief spit on the floor, much to Kaiba's ire, and scoffed," Is their anything you can't afford?" Rich people made him sick.

"The patience to deal your awful manners," he deadpanned, getting up and ready to work out. Selecting some sweats and a sleep shirt from the wardrobe that had come to bare only Bakura's clothes, he threw them to the thief, smugly returning his attention to his own clothing as he hit his target straight in the face.

They made their way to the gym, quick warm ups and stretching taking place before they began to run around the indoor track. Kaiba wasn't going for speed as much as endurance, and it became obvious that even so, only will propelled the thief fast enough to keep up. They ran like that for some time, keeping up a good speed and not speaking much.

It was actually rather nice to have a partner to run with, Kaiba decided. He rather disliked running and only did it to keep in shape, so a running mate at least made it interesting. It kept him on his toes and added extra motivation to keep up his pace and not be bested. His run came to an end a little earlier than usual though as the ragged breathing of the thief just ahead of him got too loud and he watched the last few steps of the thief's run sloppily come to a stop.

Kaiba was a little disappointed. He'd been about to lap the thief.

"I am _good_ at running," the thief pitifully panted as he leaned over and held onto his knees as he tried to catch his breath. "I _was_ good at running. It's this body." He heard the slowing footfalls as Kaiba came to a stop just beside him. The thief noticed he wasn't exactly breathing easily either, but at least he didn't sound like a dying squeaky toy.

Kaiba scowled to himself, conflicted as to if he really wanted to offer what he had in mind. It was the thief, who he wasn't completely over not hating yet. "If you wanted," he began, taking a second to sigh quietly to himself at the idiocy of extending a kind offer to this man. "You could join me in the mornings. Get some practice in."

Looking up with a little surprise, the thief mumbled," I'd have to ask my landlord." He straightened up, starting to feel marginally better and hating how weak bending over seemed in his head. It didn't help that he was speaking rather powerlessly, he had to keep as much face as possible. "I don't think he much likes waking up to feeling like he ran a marathon."

"We ran an eighth of a marathon."

"He'll complain I'm sure," the thief said, with a roll of his eyes.

"I don't think he will," Kaiba said with a gentle shake of his head. "You obviously wanted to run, or he would've just gone back to sleep." He started walking and gestured for the thief to follow. It was time for a brief drink break and then they were on push-ups. It was never fun if one let their body cool down before their workout was over. It tossed motivation right out the window.

"He's put up with a lot," Kaiba continued as he poured some cold barley tea and handed it over to the thief. "You've certainly done worse to him than a little running and some crunches. I think if it makes you happy, he'd happily ignore his legs and abs being a little sore."

"You're being rather nice. It's kind of creepy. Stop it," the thief grumbled as he accepted the tea and sipped at it.

"I haven't really woken up yet," Kaiba excused," I'll be back to normal when I get my coffee." He didn't like to eat before working out, and he didn't like to drink coffee without having eaten. It was a cruel chain of effect.

The thief felt like he owed Kaiba something for being so kind, and he nibbled at his lip as he thought it over. Looking up to the other, the thief finished most of his tea before taking a step closer. "Or we could keep _playing nice_ ," he said, pausing after the word 'keep' and adding a little emphasis to the rest.

Kaiba recognized the look on the thief's face and forced himself to calmly inform," I want to speak to Bakura."

Getting a little closer, so that Kaiba backed up against the wall, the thief smiled crookedly and said," No can do. He told me not to bother him until after a shower." Placing a hand against the wall to cage Kaiba slightly more, the thief lowered his voice and teased," I'm sure you have a shower big enough for the two of us to take it together." He bit his lower lip enticingly, drawing attention as the blood rushed under the skin and made his lip fuller and redder.

"I have enough showers, we could take ours almost a kilometer apart," Kaiba tensely replied.

His smile gaining a bit of an edge, the thief smoothly returned," Or we could skip the shower. There's more than one way to get w-"

"Stop this," Kaiba said through gritted teeth. "Whatever the hell you're doing. Stop it." They were actually getting along, and the thief was ruining everything. Kaiba's skin crawled. He was confident that he was capable of getting away from this, keeping the thief off him, but not that he could do that without hurting Bakura's body at the same time.

The seductive expression fell to ired confusion. "Y-you were being nice to me," the thief stuttered loudly," No one ever- unless- ugh, what is wrong with you?!" He half heartedly punched Kaiba in chest, backing away with a curse under his breath and he nursed his arm. Tears automatically gathered, but he blinked them away furiously. His arm was still casted and he felt stupid for not thinking ahead just because the arm had hurt a lot less lately.

"I'm not saying there aren't things wrong with me, but not wanting to kiss you isn't one of them," Kaiba snarled, stepping close and taking the thief's arm to check it. He batted the thief's good hand away so he could quickly inspect the arm freely and hummed darkly. "Does it hurt when I do this?" He pressed lightly near the elbow.

Colorfully swearing more, the thief hissed," Yes!"

Scowling thoughtfully, Kaiba commented mostly to himself," We should take you in to get a check up. The cast will be coming off so soon, I'd hate for a new injury to mess things up now."

The thief glared at Kaiba with such confused anger. There he went showing concern again, not even pegging it only on Bakura's well-being like he used to. Kaiba had moments of being compassionate, actively being nice to him, humoring him, amusing him with his witty snark- and then Kaiba seemed completely uninterested. The thief didn't get it. He felt like he was getting mixed signals. It had been a long time since the thief wanted to kiss another person so badly. 

Kaiba noticed the glare and mistook its meaning, scoffing," I didn't press your arm _that_ hard."

"You ignorant, obtuse _genius_!"

Quirking an eyebrow at the choice of words, Kaiba asked," And just what am I slow to understand?"

"I _want_ to _kiss_ you!"

Letting go of the thief's arm, Kaiba crossed his own arms and muttered," That wasn't exactly difficult to figure out. I don't know how someone as oblivious as you can be made to realize, _I'm not interested_."

The thief didn't actually have an argument put together, but he wanted to fight. "W-what? Does it make you _uncomfortable_?" he egged out of desperation of not knowing what else to do in this kind of situation.

"I think just about anyone seeing you like that would become uncomfortable," Kaiba quipped darkly. The second the thief's eyes did _that_ look, he was definitely uneasy.

The thief spit at the other, hitting Kaiba in the face. To Kaiba's credit, he barely flinched, only closing his eyes to protect them. Wiping at the spit, Kaiba growled," Spitting twice in one day. Congrats, I believe you're becoming the camel you were always meant to be." It was scientifically inaccurate. Camels were actually technically spraying cud when they used their natural defense mechanism, but he didn't need to make this whole affair more vulgar than it already was.

His pique of indignation lit a fire in him that assured the thief he could run another eighth of a marathon without realizing it. Kaiba was the one making this difficult! Did he want him or not? Throwing his mostly empty cup to the floor, the thief hissed," Whatever. Have fun with the rest of your workout." He didn't have any scathing remarks. He couldn't be bothered to come up with them right now.

Kaiba's eyes dropped to the cup as it bounced against the wooden floor, the plastic making for a rather loud, hollow sound. He didn't watch the thief leave, just happy to be rid of him. He _should_ be happy at least, he thought. Really, he was just kind of disappointed.

The thief made short work of finding a shower, peeling his sweaty clothes off and leaving them unkempt on the bathroom floor as he stepped into the large shower. Their cast was fiberglass with waterproof padding since Kaiba had spared no expense. 

He glared at the array of this shower, noticing it didn't quite look like the one Bakura had at home, and it was different from the shower Bakura usually used here. That one was small and to the point, but this one seemed to have nozzles lining the entire ceiling at various angles and the controls were completely different and complicated looking.

Scowling at the levers and knobs like they had personally offended him, the thief recognized a kanji on one of them. A gate with a smaller gate in it, or at least that's how he remembered it, meant open. Twisting the knob, he humphed when nothing happened. With an annoyed, bored expression, he began to twist levers this way and that, just wanting something to happen.

Something happened in a matter of seconds alright. Boiling water streamed down from every direction and the thief scrabbled at the controls to try and fix his mistake. There was no where to avoid the onslaught of water as it scalded him and then became freezing. 

"Why aren't all showers the same," he cried under his breath as he gave up and slid the door open to escape the once again boiling water.

" _Need a little help?_ " a voice offered in a similar patronizing tone to the one the thief often used.

Glaring to his side as his landlord appeared beside him, the thief growled. "No," he scoffed, but he knew he didn't fool either of them. 

Bakura wore a sympathetic smile as he softly called," _Hey._ "

Rolling his eyes, the thief relinquished control. He was secretly grateful he didn't have to deal with the blasted shower anymore, but Bakura didn't have to know that.

Bakura reached into the still running shower, killing the main line so he could walk in and figure out what adjustments had to be made. He'd been roused from his slumber by shocked pain all across his body, and had been rather relieved that it was just troubles with a shower. Righting all the levers and twisting the main knob, a beautifully warm but not too hot cascade of water descended down. "How was working out," Bakura asked brightly. It certainly felt like they had ran enough.

He didn't get an answer, and sent a questioning glance to where the thief had been, but now was gone. Bakura frowned, instantly realizing something must have gone wrong. He sighed, really having hoped it would go well. They were so similar, they would make such great friends if they tried.

Glumly shampooing his hair, Bakura let himself zone out. It was still awfully early, and he felt exhausted from the running he couldn't remember doing. When he consciously chose it, blacking out was actually rather nice. It was convenient for stuff like this, where he wasn't at all interested, but wasn't morally opposed to what was going on. Though, now he found himself wondering what went on while he was out.

" _Your boyfriend's really mad at me._ "

Continuing to lather and arching into a strong jet of water, Bakura asked with a hint of exasperation," What did you do?"

" _Well, I spit in his face for one thing._ "

He had to will himself to keep from facepalming, not wanting stinging eyes. "And why is that?"

" _It doesn't matter_ ," the thief dismissed, suddenly realizing that while he wanted to talk about it, he didn't know how Bakura would feel about what went down.

Bakura rinsed thoroughly and then began to condition his hair. If he didn't, he'd regret it later for sure. He'd give the thief space and let him be. The thief got upset if pressed for more info too quickly, and often came crawling back with his concerns after a few aborted attempts at talking about them anyways. Apparently this was a rather difficult subject though, because Bakura didn't hear anymore out of him for the rest of his shower.

It was only when he finished up and stepped out to find no towel or clean clothes that Bakura sighed and called for the thief's attention. "I know I said not to bother me until we were showered, but what was your plan for after the shower?"

The thief chuckled and dismissed," _It would be far from the first time in my life I walked around naked._ "

"Great. I hope you've never taken my body for a nude joyride," Bakura said mostly jokingly, though he really hoped the thief would at least have the courtesy to not admit to it if he had. The thief had no comment for him, and Bakura just sighed. Well, at least it wasn't theft or murder he was finding out about. 

The bathroom had some hand towels, and they would have to do until he could get to a room with clothes of his. Luckily, the thief had picked a room rather close to Kaiba's master bedroom, and with a quick dart for it, Bakura successfully made it there unseen.

Slipping into plain clothes, Bakura yawned and mumbled," I believe you still owe me breakfast." He looked to Kaiba's bed, a little tempted to change back to pajamas and just fall back asleep.

" _How do you feel about cereal?_ "

"I can handle it myself," Bakura sighed. There was no point in forcing the thief to take back control just to pour some milk. Anyways, if the thief was sulking this badly, Kaiba was probably not much better, and he would be happier to see Bakura in control.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Bakura's feelings towards running mirror my own, and the thief's feelings closely follow a great buddy's of mine, while Kaiba is just trying to stay fit so he can James Bond his way out of things with cards. I'm all for exercising, but not running and especially not at Stupid O'Clock in the Morning.


	7. Stalling

Whatever had gone down between the thief and Kaiba must have been ugly, because the thief didn't even bother asking to play any games with him for a week. The thief's resolve couldn't last forever though. It was late at night and Bakura was fixing up some hot chocolate for himself since he still felt awkward asking servants to do it for him, especially at this hour. He still planned on being up a while since he'd managed to mess up his sleep schedule again, but he didn't really have much to do.

" _I'm bored_ ," the thief complained. 

They'd been watching videos online for the last hour, Bakura wasn't exactly the picture of excitement either. "My mother always used to give me a chore if I said that, though there isn't exactly anything to clean up around here," Bakura mused as he grabbed out a mug and filled it with some milk to put in the microwave. He looked over to the thief as he waited for the microwave to finish. The thief had a contemplative look on his face.

" _I can only remember one phrase of my mother's_ ," the thief said softly, staring off into the distance like his mind was somewhere else.

"Oh?" Bakura was surprised at the open sharing. The thief never mentioned his past except as excuses and bitter complaints.

The thief screwed up his face as he recounted," _The first one to apologize is the stronger one._ " He'd never liked that advice. It had always seemed wrong and inconvenient, though he reflected it was bothersome when he led a life of crime, and she'd never wanted him to wind up like her. The law was harsh in Ancient Egypt, his village knew that, and she'd always hoped he'd grow past their mistakes. That was what he remembered, anyways, of his five year old life three thousand years ago.

"Probably a little overgeneralized," Bakura weighed," But I like that. When two people fight, they usually both end up doing hurtful things, and it's hard to be the one who starts mending bridges."

Bakura opened the microwave one second before it would have beeped, avoiding the pointlessly loud sound, and took out the steaming milk. Measuring in the hot chocolate, he began mixing. The silence after his last comment had become a little tense, and Bakura looked over to the thief questioningly.

The thief was still looking far off, but now his gaze was hardened like he was making a hard decision. " _Could you pass on something for me?_ "

"Of course, what is it?"

Wringing his hands, the thief hummed frustratedly. " _I don't really know how to say it._ " The thief wasn't really ready to apologize, but he also wanted things to go back to how they were. He enjoyed playing games with Kaiba, and running had been quite nice.

"You want to apologize to Kaiba," Bakura guessed.

" _No_ ," he quickly objected, but his suddenly aggressive face fell to reluctant agreement. " _Maybe a little, but not all the way. He's the one in the wrong._ "

Rolling his eyes, Bakura reminded," I still don't actually know what went on between you, so I can't say."

" _It doesn't matter. He's just wrong, that's all there is to it_ ," the thief snarled, but he wasn't actually so sure he was right as he said it. He of course didn't think _he_ did anything wrong, but maybe Kaiba didn't either. 

Getting a look of "I'm waiting", the thief quickly spit out," _Um, just tell him the camel may have some learning to do._ "

"What?"

" _He'll understand._ "

Bakura shrugged. "Okay. I'll let him know."

" _Do you think we could get in a game of chess after that? I'm still bored._ "

"Well, I'm not going to tell him now. It's two in the morning," Bakura laughed. "But _we_ can play if you really want to."

" _Hmm, not chess. No offense, but you kind of suck at it._ "

Bakura pouted, then quipped back," Says the guy who hasn't managed to beat Kaiba in over two months, and usually loses in ten turns."

With an irritated wave of the hand, the thief scoffed," _Oh, c'mon. Give me twenty at least. I'm good at stalling. Helps me plan ahead._ "

Raising one eyebrow as he took a sip of his hot chocolate, Bakura set his mug down and declared," I have zero evidence that you have ever planned _anything_ out." 

Monster World would have been an easy no win death trap for adventurers if he'd put any forward thought into it at all. A GM could make the world any way they saw fit, including raining fireballs on players or having an impossible reflex save to avoid a rolling boulder. Sure a game like that wasn't very fun, but if he truly wanted the Puzzle so bad, one boring game would have been worth it.

And then there was how he didn't seem to know that he wanted other items until he saw the Puzzle. The Ring could have pointed them to any item no matter what corner of the globe it was in before he met Yuugi, but the spirit always waited for them to come to him. 

He messed up his final RPG too, thankfully.

" _Rude_ ," the thief called, sticking his tongue out.

"True," Bakura simply replied with a victorious smirk.

~~  
~~

Bakura was getting ready for school when he noticed Kaiba wasn't. "Business meeting," he guessed, noticing that Kaiba was choosing a few suits along with the one that he already was preparing to don.

"Yes, Germany for four days. We're constructing another Kaiba Land," he answered, a look of deep concentration on his face. He put even more work into choosing his outfits than usual, not wanting to think about how this was the longest business meeting he'd attend since their fight and how he'd neglected to inform Bakura earlier because he was worried about how it would go over.

Bakura tentatively asked," Could you message me after dinner each night. J-just to know you're doing well." He felt stupid for asking immediately, knowing his neediness had to be glaring like a neon sign.

"Japan is seven hours ahead of Germany, you'll probably be asleep."

No he wouldn't, Bakura knew. "It will be a nice message to wake up to then," he said, scratching the back of his head embarrassedly.

"Okay." None of his previous business trips had so much anxiety milling around his being gone, and Kaiba felt like it was a direct result of a few weeks ago. He wondered how long that would follow him, or if it may never completely go away.

He wished he could take back his action, but at the same time, a lot of good had come from them talking out the problems that had arisen around it and its resolution. Calling a servant in to take his selected suits, Kaiba sat on the corner of his bed next to Bakura, offering to hold his hand.

"Sorry," Bakura timidly muttered. His hand hesitantly snaked into Kaiba's, and he held tightly. "I must seem-"

"It's fine," Kaiba quickly assured him, though he felt a twinge in his heart at the doubt that Bakura must have in him. He leaned in and kissed Bakura's cheek. "I'll be back before you know it."

Bakura smiled weakly and leaned in to hug Kaiba. His smile wavered as he was out of sight, tightly embracing Kaiba and wishing he didn't have to let go.


	8. Sent At

Bakura sat by his charging phone, head sleepily nestled atop his drawn in knees. He pressed the main button of his phone again, disappointed to find it was already three in the morning. He yawned, his eyes tearing up, and sighed. 

" _You have school tomorrow, and I'm not filling for you_ ," the thief said as he appeared on the other side of the phone.

"I know." He pressed the button again as the phone faded to black, it's light coming back and his background following after. The clock moved forward another minute.

The thief stared at the phone, well aware what he was waiting for. " _He's texted you the last two nights. He's probably just having a late dinner._ "

"Yeah." Bakura had looked up normal dinner time in Germany, and it was rather similar to Japan, with a small tendency to be a little later. He drummed his fingers on the floor beside his phone, ready to light it back up as it faded again.

Biting his lip, Bakura slouched even more as time went by. "It's probably stupid, but I feel like he might decide not to come back." He felt ridiculous, but he still couldn't help the _need_ to receive that text and know everything was alright, Kaiba hadn't forgotten about him.

" _It's not stupid_ ," the thief said. " _History has a knack for repeating itself. He has abandoned you before, so it's only natural you fear he may again._ " 

What had started as a great reassurance ended up only making Bakura feel worse. "Wow, thanks for the really uplifting words," Bakura mumbled bitterly.

The thief pouted, having tried to been helpful. He crossed his arms and looked away. How did people have it in them to be nice all the time when often attempts at doing so were just shot down and left unappreciated?

The phone buzzed and Bakura eagerly checked the notifications, only to be disappointed that it was an email from some subscribtion he hadn't renewed for years. He let out another sigh and took a break from compulsively checking the time.

" _Why don't you read or something? I'll watch over your phone for you_ ," the thief offered with an embarrassed look. He averted his gaze again as a touched expression came to Bakura's face. He tried to scowl, but his face was only allowing a silly twisted up pout.

After a few more emails lighting up the screen, a message notification finally did and the thief called Bakura's attention to it. He watched intently, but he still missed the lock code as Bakura picked up his phone and entered it too quickly for him to see. It was quite long, and the thief found himself annoyed that he still couldn't use the phone, but too proud to ask.

"Dinner finished. Today went well," Bakura read aloud, relief sounding through him as he held the phone to his chest.

Another text arrived, and Bakura read quickly [ _Building should begin promptly and be finished in time for Easter break._ ] He saw a curious look on the thief's face and nodded that this text conversation was open.

[ _That's great!_ ] Bakura quickly typed back. [ _When's easter?_ ]

[ _March/April_ ]

Bakura was busy searching for the perfect sticker to send to convey "congrats" when he got another message from Kaiba.

[ _It is almost 4 a.m. there._ ] And then another. [ _Sleep is good for you. You should try it._ ]

Bakura smirked and tapped his reply with irked amusement. [ _Haha. Very funny._ ]

[ _Just some advice I got recently_ ]

[ _From a pretty cool & smart guy, right?_] He used an ampersand deliberately. The thief was reading over his shoulder and laughed loudly.

It showed that Kaiba read it immediately, but he didn't reply right away, and Bakura worried he went too far. The thief's humor was rubbing off on him. Kaiba did reply though, equally sarcastic, so Bakura figured his playful jab was taken well.

[ _I was planning on inviting you to the grand opening but now I think I'll take the thief instead._ ]

The thief laughed even louder. "I can't wait to go on the Blue Eyes ride!"

Bakura looked to the thief suspiciously and asked," How do you know what rides it will have?"

" _This is Kaiba we're talking about. There's going to be a Blue Eyes ride._ "

That was a fair assumption, Bakura decided with an amused smile.

[ _He seems pretty excited._ ] Bakura decided to share. Well, Kaiba wasn't wrong with his advice. He was already wondering how he'd make it through tomorrow. He'd nodded off during reading his book three times. [ _Thanks for the text. I'm off to bed now._ ]

[ _Sleep well_ ]

[ _Thanks._ ]

[ _I'll be home in two days._ ] he reminded Bakura.

[ _I can't make it that long._ ] Bakura dramatically text back. [ _Can I have a picture?_ ]

" _I think you love birds are literally making me sick right now_ ," the thief complained.

Bakura just pointed out," You don't have to read." 

A picture popped up, and Bakura pouted. It was the picture from Kaiba Corp's homepage. Puffing out his cheeks, he tapped back [ _I meant a current one._ ]

[ _That is only three months old. I consider that rather current._ ]

Despite the argument, a new picture loaded. The lighting was awful, but he was well dressed and didn't look too serious. His face also didn't approach that of a smile. Bakura had come to love his neutral expression as he got to know him better. It felt normal, safe.

He saved the photo to his phone with a small smile.

" _That prick has it so easy. He so much as humors you and you feel special_ ," the thief commented, looking between the selfie and Bakura's enamored face.

Smiling wryly as he looked over to the thief, Bakura asked," Speaking from experience?"

" _I hope you stub your little toe_ ," the thief grumbled with a self-conscious scowl.

Quickly typing back thanks and promising that he really was going to bed now, Bakura rubbed at his eyes and yawned. Ugh, he should have asked for morning texts. Getting ready for bed quickly, he happily tucked in and fell asleep.


	9. Brush Off

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TW// No suicidal thoughts per se, but this is a rather upsetting/dark chapter
> 
> I'm sorry in advance for any glaring mistakes. Today has been so stressful and I've been rushing from one obligation to the next with no sleep or much food. I literally got off a 10 hour shift this morning at 07:30 and had my next one start fifteen minutes away at 08:00 with only running on two hours of sleep. The only thing that has been getting me through was enthusing I'd be able to post this chapter during my break (of my third shift today OTL)... So not much time for proper beta'ing, but I'm not throwing away this joy.

Bakura finished a broad stroke, going back with the eraser to make all the aborted attempts at getting the right curve disappear. His pencil flowed smoothly across the grid lined page, bringing yet another character concept into existence. The design was simple, but Bakura liked the soft waves of her hair. He wrote in the shade of red he'd pick, not having to reference his bottles of paint to remember the exact name and letter number combination.

He was out of that shade right now, as well as most of his blues and metal colors. The majority of his skin tones and greens were pretty low too, now that he thought about it, and he didn't have any gray on hand in the shade he wanted to make her cloak. He spun the pencil between his fingers as he pouted thoughtfully, staring at the mostly completed character design.

Sighing as he set his pencil on his nightstand and leaned back in his bed, he held the notebook close to his chest and stared up at the ceiling boredly.

The thief had been watching, in between half heartedly following some drama on TV. Bakura often left the TV on low with closed captioning when he was doing something independent like homework or playing a game.

" _You haven't been carving lately_ ," the thief observed. He'd noticed Bakura compile many drafts of character ideas, but Bakura hadn't touched his craft in almost a month. It wasn't the cast getting in the way. Early on when the cast was first fitted, he'd done some easy carving and painting and hadn't seemed _too_ hindered.

Bakura didn't break from his staring contest with ceiling and reticently said," Arcades aren't cheap. Good quality woodblocks are pretty expensive too. We can only afford one." His hobby budget wasn't miniscule or anything, but games at one hundred yen a pop added up quickly.

The thief kept his eyes on the TV screen as he hummed in acknowledgement like he was too preoccupied to give his full attention, but his brow crinkled as he thought this over. Bakura loved carving. He'd been doing it since his father stopped paying enough attention to his life to prohibit possibly dangerous hobbies.

A new show, something about some guy who flew all the way to France to learn from the best about chocolatiering to impress a girl, was on when the thief finally turned back to Bakura ready to speak. Bakura was playing a game on his laptop, but he didn't seem very invested. The thief hadn't noticed the bedside lamp being turned off. Maybe he'd been paying more attention to the drama than he'd thought.

The thief abruptly said," _You're not carving because of me._ "

Looking up from his computer, it's glow casting his skin in a sickly color, Bakura's face twisted up as he said," Well, yeah, but… I mean, I almost gave up minis before you came back too. It's not a big deal. I have other hobbies." His face read almost guilty like he didn't want to have this conversation.

" _It's your favorite hobby._ "

Bakura shrugged reluctantly.

" _Aside from actually playing Monster World._ " As he said this, he realized he'd been around for months now, and Bakura hadn't played a single game of it since he'd come back. He worked on writing campaigns now and then, but not nearly with the same fervor he had before the thief's departure. " _Which you don't actually play anymore._ "

"I- I… It's not important. Don't worry about it."

That was possibly the worst word choice Bakura could have strung together. Forgetting the TV all together, the thief turned around and sat cross legged in front of Bakura. " _You lost your favorite hobby because of me, and now you're giving up your second favorite for me._ " The thief had to lay it all out loud or he had trouble attaching emotion sometimes.

"Just forget it," Bakura dismissed, shutting his laptop and looking away.

" _You two really expect nothing_ ," the thief marveled. Earning a slightly confused look, the thief expounded," _You and Mr. President are just being nice for no reason. You guys don't expect anything out of me- don't_ want _anything out of me._ "

Bakura tilted his head curiously, able to tell that a pretty big detail was being left out.

" _Man, what is wrong with you people_ ," the thief laughed, but his eyes caught the obscure light that reflected off the walls from the television and tears glittered, threatening to fall.

"Thief-"

With a strong bark of laughter, the thief exclaimed," _That's what I feel like! Sucking up all this weird kindness from you lunatics!_ "

"Caring about you doesn't make us lunatics," Bakura argued softly. He reached forward, wishing he could hold the thief's hand. His hand fell to the bed crestfallen. The thief looked like he needed a hug as his laughter trailed and his face screwed up into angry confusion. 

The thief shook his head, casting his gaze down so shaggier hair covered his eyes. " _You're wrong._ " He grabbed at his ankle with his good hand tightly enough that Bakura felt it through their link. He was pretty sure, anyways, because Bakura winced and fidgeted the same leg. Breath catching in his throat, the thief had difficulty forcing out a small, wavering," _Hey_." 

His lips trembled as he licked at them, having to add more because his tight throat wouldn't let him get the established tone they had come to agree on for asking permission. " _Can I…?_ " He couldn't even finish the question, but he could feel as control slid to him anyways.

Not a single tear had actually fallen, but he felt so weak. He felt pathetic, and thousands of years told him that this whole situation was ridiculous.

Not taking the time to turn off the TV or grab anything other than the socks he quickly shoved his feet in, the thief staggered to the genkan and shoved on the sports shoes Bakura had picked up after the thief expressed liking to run. The world wasn't spinning, but he still felt like everything was so wrong that if he wasn't moving he'd fall to the ground.

The thief left their apartment and ran until he hit the coast, then just kept on running until he couldn't any more. It wasn't long enough to gather his thoughts. 

Shrieking breaths racked through him as he sunk to damp sand, first to his knees, then to all fours. Their left arm only shook a little at supporting weight, and the thief couldn't be bothered to care that he was getting the cast dirty. He was told they only had to live with it for two more weeks anyways.

He hadn't asked, but Bakura had knowingly gave him privacy, and now the thief had to call out for Bakura's presence.

Disorientedly opening his eyes as he began to roam beside his body, Bakura looked around and quietly asked," _Where are we?_ "

The thief colorfully informed him he didn't know, collapsing down further before just rolling onto his back and looking up to the sky that was too light polluted to show much in the way of stars.

They didn't have his wallet or phone, they were dressed in pajamas, and now they were getting rather wet from the joint effort of the sand and misty breeze. It had to be around ten at night. Bakura sighed, but just said," _It's alright. We'll find a way home._ "

"I hurt you. Just before," the thief said wearily. His breathing was evening out, but it still was rather ragged.

Bakura shook his head and assured him," _It was more a discomfort than painful._ "

The thief scoffed at this and said," My presence in your life is a discomfort."

Bakura's mouth dropped and he quickly tried to insist," _No, it's n_ -"

"I should just pass on," the thief called out vexedly. His voice dropped to a respectable level as he added," But I _can't_."

Bakura sat down beside the thief, a bit of a chill making him cross his arms even though he couldn't protect himself from the wind on his physical body. " _What do you mean?_ "

The thief sat up, shivering as his now exposed back got a full gust of wind. The crisp coolness of the wind mixed with the salty spray of the sea won against a thin sleep shirt. Now that he was cooling off from his full out sprint, he could actually feel the temperature it was outside.

"My body was destroyed by Zorc and my heart probably weighs more than a stone," The thief said darkly. With no body, the proper rites could not be completed, so he could never even get as far as the Hall of Truth. Without a body, his only way to the afterlife had been the doors in Kul Elna. 

Though, even if he did, his soul would probably plunge the scales so dramatically the feather of Ma'at would sail away. His heart would be eaten by Amenti, and he would cease to exist. There was no passage to the Field of Reeds for him.

" _I… don't know what to say. I'm sorry._ " He knew a fair amount about Ancient Egyptian beliefs of the afterworld thanks to his father, and indeed, according to them, the thief was completely out of luck.

"What happens to me when you die?"

Bakura shivered both from the cold and the contemplation of his death. " _I don't know_ ," he admitted.

"I'm no longer tethered to the Ring," the thief mused. "My soul is directly tied to your body now. We could seal it to the Ring again, but… even so. What's the point? Ceasing to exist all together seems better than another three thousand years of letting my darkness grow as I slowly go mad from isolation."

" _The pharaoh was able to pass on without a body._ "

"He had a prophecy. I have nothing." He shivered a little more violently and got to his feet. Apparently little changed across the millennia. "Whatever. It doesn't matter."

" _It matters. You care, and you matter, so therefore it is important._ "

Trudging back the way he came, following the footprints he left during this stretch of his blind run, the thief didn't comment.

" _Can you at least echo that back to me?_

Hands in pockets, the thief mumbled," I've been really trying to cut back on my lying, lately."

" _Thief!_ " 

The thief looked to Bakura with surprise, caught off guard by his sudden shout. He did not sound amused in the slightest. He sounded almost angry. As they made eye contact, the thief realized he _was_.

" _I'm serious! This is important to me! You're so good at saying what people want to hear, would it kill you to repeat one sentence?!_ "

The thief almost snapped back that they'd just established he wouldn't be dying any time soon. He almost echoed back his exact words, dodging the obvious point. Instead, he stopped in his tracks and looked to Bakura with wide eyes. "It matters," he stuttered out quietly. "I care, and I matter, so it's important."


	10. Penmenship

Bakura slid an envelope onto Kaiba's desk, interrupting the novel he was reading. He gave an apologetic smile as Kaiba looked up. He wouldn't bother Kaiba's reading except for something important.

"What's this," Kaiba asked, picking up the envelope with curiosity. 

"Don't know," Bakura answered with a shrug. "It's from the thief. We can't read each other's letters." Only two other students were in homeroom, and they were well on the other side of the room, so Bakura felt comfortable speaking candidly, at a quiet volume of course.

Kaiba raised an eyebrow and opened it deftly, taking out a piece of notebook paper that had seen better days. It was taped back together down the middle and had a few wrinkles from obvious hard erasing. 

After a few sweeps of his eyes, Kaiba bluntly said," I can't read this."

"I know it can be kind of tedious to read since it's mostly hiragana, but he tries to put spaces between his words."

"Jounouchi has better penmanship."

The thief came into view and asked Bakura," _What's that supposed to mean?_ "

Bakura looked away sheepishly, scratching his head and trying to think of a nice way to put it. That wasn't the reaction the thief was hoping for. 

" _Rude_ ," the thief huffed, taking turns to glower at both people, even if Kaiba couldn't appreciate it.

"I'm assuming I can't help you decipher it-" Bakura received a hurried shake of the head and continued," so I guess I'll just have him type it out tonight."

" _It can't wait. I'll just read it to him or something_ ," the thief grumbled.

"You sure? We have, like, ten minutes before class," Bakura pointed out.

" _I'll be quick_ ," the thief promised.

"He's going to read it to you," Bakura said. "He want's to do it before class."

Kaiba was interested what could be so important that the thief had bothered to write him a letter. It had to be rather sensitive information if he wasn't willing to share with the very person he shared a body with. He had a feeling he knew what it concerned.

"The room next door is empty at this time," he offered, knowing privacy was a must.

"Perfect," Bakura said, looking to the thief and giving permission with a brief nod.

The thief took over and snatched away the letter. He'd need its structured help to say all he wanted without losing his nerve or forgetting something. He started walking immediately, trusting Kaiba to follow. With a quick glance to his host, he whispered," No listening, alright?"

Bakura nodded before disappearing, and the thief swallowed hard, it now seeming much more real. He didn't want to be there when Kaiba received the message. It was embarrassing. That'd been the whole point of taking the time to put it into writing.

"Close the door behind you," the thief called out, more to establish that he was in control giving orders than because he thought Kaiba would be stupid enough to ignore closing the door when they came here for privacy.

The last thing the thief wanted was to read this letter, but things still weren't the same as they'd been. His half-hearted allusion hadn't cut it. He'd had a lot more time to think about everything, and while it seemed impossible and grossly unappealing, he figured he never tried actually saying sorry.

Clearing his throat, he looked to Kaiba briefly then back at his letter. "Um…" He was off to a great start. Really, that just had to be the most eloquent way to begin. "So… uh…" Even better.

Kaiba took a seat at one of the desks, knowing people often had an easier time giving a speech if they felt they had higher ground. He wanted to expedite this. While interested in what the thief had to say, he did not intend to be late to class.

The thief collected himself, breathing in slowly and focusing on the paper in front of him instead of the person he was reading to.

"I'm writing this letter because I guess we should talk or something but I really don't want to and also it has the added convenience of my landlord not reading it. I like to run, and playing games with you is interesting so I don't want to mess that up for myself," He read quickly and detachedly, his voice sounding generally frustrated like he was being made to read aloud a grocery list.

"I guess that means I should apologise, since I never really gave a proper one, though I'm not really sure what for but you seemed quite upset, even before I spit at you. So I suppose I can forgive you if you can accept this trainwreck of an apology. It's just that I've been so confused lately. You keep acting really nice for out of nowhere, and when I try to repay you, you get all pissy. You've got a really good punch by the way, and if you're interested in sparring sometime, it's been a long time for me and this body could really use the practice, but I'm getting sidetracked. Anyways, I'm just really confused because…"

Kaiba had taken to propping his chin on his entwined hands, but looked up at the sudden pause. "What?"

"I… I can't read it," the thief admitted. The paper crumpled in his hands as his embarrassed frustration grew. "Whatever, I don't need a script," he dismissed, not giving Kaiba the time to comment on the fact his handwriting was so bad even he couldn't read it.

Holding his hands to the side in vexation, he continued with more emotion as he had to actively construct what he wanted to say. "I don't understand what you want! One second, you're being nice, like, you don't have to be but you are, and I try to return the favor and you get angry at me. Why are you being so… nice?!"

Kaiba looked at him in a way that questioned his sanity. "You want me to… stop… being nice?"

"That's not it! I want you to make up your mind!"

"There's where you're really confused. I _have_ made up my mind. Sometimes I feel like being nice, but I don't want you to 'repay me' or whatever you have it in your head you have to do if a human being shows the tiniest sliver of kindness. You don't owe me anything." Never in his life did Kaiba Seto think he would have to explain himself for being too kind.

"You… you mean you're really _just_ being kind?" The thief squinted his eyes disbelievingly. His expression only became more confused as Kaiba nodded. "You don't expect anything out of it…?" Another nod.

With a dropped mouth, the thief shook his head slowly. He'd come to this conclusion himself, but had rejected it a few times.That wasn't how it was supposed to be. This was all wrong, this was completely contradictory to everything he'd learned on the streets. Kaiba looked completely serious though, sincere in his aloof way.

"The bell will ring soon," Kaiba said nonchalantly, getting to his feet and preparing to leave. He took a few steps and realized the thief wasn't following. Looking back, he said," You can't make Bakura late. I'll drag you there myself."

"R-right," the thief said, clearing his throat and following dumbly, still too shocked to give his full attention to anything. He decided that maybe Bakura should take back control, because he obviously wasn't going to get anything accomplished like this.

~~  
~~

It was the last period of the day, and Bakura was idly adding furigana to all the harder kanji in his textbook as had become habit. It didn't matter the class and subject. The thief had said it was kind of convenient one time, and Bakura could tell that was him trying to say thank you. He would like to get a more concrete piece of gratitude sometime, but for now it was enough because he could tell just how much more the thief took the time to roam during school when he could actually read the material. Bakura felt really good about helping the thief get an education.

In the margins of his notebook where very helpful notes of mostly little ghosts and one detailed skull resided, he wrote [ _So, are you going to tell me what you and Kaiba talked about? It's been all day._ ]

The thief turned up his nose and sourly said," _No, it's secret, hence the letter. Duh._ "

[ _I didn't read the letter. I'm just asking about it_ ] Bakura wrote. [ _I believe you established that's okay._ ]

The thief crossed his arms and said," _I've changed my mind._ "

Bakura rolled his eyes and returned his attention to class. He did want to take some actually useful notes. He was working really hard to keep his grades perfect, even in the last leg of high school. He figured he'd worked so hard thus far, he might as well keep it up.

" _How come your handwriting is so perfect and mine is apparently worse than a barely intelligible monkey?_ " the thief complained as he thought more about his letter. " _We're using the same hand!_ "

Bakura hesitated before writing his answer. [ _I have a lot of practice_ ] he settled on, leaving it vague. Sure muscle memory had to help, but knowing the correct order of the strokes of each character helped too.

The thief hummed in acknowledgement, catching his drift but less than eager to broach the topic. His gaze drifted to Kaiba. He still didn't know what to make of their conversation. " _You've known him longer than I have_ ," the thief began. 

His host and Kaiba had a lot of time together that the thief couldn't account for. His time as little more than a sliver festering in Kaiba's soul was entirely blank after his first few attempts at consciousness that nearly exhausted his soul completely. He didn't actually know a whole lot about Kaiba other than how much the other had completely hated and distrusted him for putting Bakura in danger. He now seemed much more neutral towards the thief aside from the confusing bouts of kindness that kept throwing the thief for a loop, but the thief still found he didn't know as much about him as he had assumed he did before. " _Would you consider him an honest man?_ "

Bakura frowned, tapping his pencil against the desk a few times before writing his reply. [ _He didn't used to be, but yes. He doesn't keep things from me. He's a private person, but not a liar._ ] Now Bakura was _really_ curious about what they'd talked about. When the thief didn't say anything, he scrawled [ _Why?_ ]

Focusing on their link, he sent a light pulse of energy through their chest. Like the thief had once sent spikes of pain, Bakura had learned to soften the blow to grab the thief's attention. He pointed to his question and the thief looked down with a look of great expense like this was a great toll on his time and Bakura was lucky he was humoring him.

Sometimes the thief doubted his ability to read people, like now. Sometimes they said or did things too unbelievable to be true and the thief wondered how they could hone such a perfect poker face to lie to someone like him. Like the sheer selflessness Bakura had shown back in their game of Monster World or endless faith in others Yuugi seemed to have, it could seem to be too good to be true.

He liked to try to attribute these anomalies to stupidity, but as time went on, he began to realize the supposed naivety he'd attributed to so many people was really just something he didn't understand. Even with this revelation, some things were too great a leap of faith. His gaze drifted back to Kaiba once more and a scowl pulled at his lips.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know I've been writing this a lot lately, but everyone's comments and kudos really means the world to me. It's so motivating to know that people are really reading this, and the confidence to forge on with this very long story is something I can kind of struggle with sometimes. I wanted to thank everyone again for the positivity and support. You guys really are the best!


	11. Be Our Guest

Having got the actual invites out of the way, the rest was smooth sailing. He was good at hosting for people, or rather he was good at paying people to do it for him.

It was a three day event in a prefecture four hours away, so everyone brought packed suitcases when they arrived at the Kaiba estate.

Yuugi had said it would be nice to all go together, and Kaiba had agreed it would be convenient. Thus, everyone was rendezvousing at his mansion for a limo ride to the concert. The city they were headed to was too dense to take a private jet.

Yuugi was early, and Anzu was exactly on time, still in her work uniform and asking where she could change. Honda and Jounouchi were racing each other for the gate a good twenty minutes after they agreed to meet. Kaiba had anticipated such delays, and built in more than enough time to compensate.

No one said anything about how Bakura was already there and seemed to be settled in, walking side by side with Kaiba to the dining room they'd eat in, as if he knew the mansion inside and out.

"I better not get a kiddie meal this time," Jounouchi muttered darkly as they entered the dining hall, to the confusion of some. Bakura couldn't hide his look of shock as he put together who was complaining about their food and who almost died from poison at Mokuba's hands.

The conversation was otherwise light as they all ate a fancy pasta dish with a rich cheesy cream. Anzu enthused about actually seeing the group live, and Honda was looking forward to their special effects despite the revelation they were fake. Jounouchi was already speculating about the food that would be offered as if he wasn't eating his body weight in pasta as he spoke.

Bakura was honestly excited for all of it, though no one asked. He'd never been to a concert before and didn't know what to expect. The thief was quiet, and Bakura wondered his thoughts on all of this, though of course he couldn't ask. He never had come up with a way to reveal the thief had survived.

Eventually Honda's failed exploits at love came up, and it soon got turned to Bakura as Jounouchi joked," How 'bout you, Bakura? I'm sure any girl would swoon for you if you told them how you broke your arm." The press had turned him into a courageous hero, an intern advisor ready to risk his life to save a higher up.

"A selfless rescue is never a bad start to a girl's heart," Honda agreed like he had any useful experience to draw from.

Bakura shrugged and explained," I'm not actually looking right now."

"Oh? And who's the lucky catch?" Anzu asked with a playful smirk.

Bakura looked to Kaiba for confirmation that he was still okay with this. Receiving a curt nod, Bakura smiled and announced," You know him pretty well."

Yuugi looked to Kaiba instantly, a knowing smile appearing as he caught on. He shared this look with Anzu, and she too smiled without surprise. The silence drew slightly with captured interest.

"Cut to the chase. Who?" Jounouchi rapped the table impatiently.

Bakura had been looking forward to making this announcement ever since he got the green light, but now that it was actually here, he froze. He trusted his friends to take it well, but it was still a rather large reveal, and all attention was on him.

"We've been seeing each other some time now," Kaiba filled in nonchalantly, continuing to eat like he'd merely commented on the weather.

Jounouchi's loud shock was laughed over by Yuugi and Anzu.

"It all seems so obvious in hindsight," Honda murmured, a look of acceptance dawning as he seemed to put all the pieces together slowly but surely.

Jounouchi searched his friends for even a hint of shared shock, asking," How am I the only one surprised?"

"Well, to be fair, we're always surprised when you figure things out," Kaiba said with a light smirk.

"I wouldn't say surprised, maybe, shocked," Honda remarked.

Anzu shrugged and giggled. "Try astonished."

"You're not helping," Jounouchi snapped with a harsh jab to Honda's ribs and equally harsh glare towards Anzu. Everyone was laughing soon enough, though the butt of the joke shifted around enough that no one person would feel too singled out. It was a great start to a great concert, and Bakura was even more excited as time went by.

When they arrived at the concert, Kaiba handed out everyone's tickets. Each one was for all inclusive backstage access and on the last day, hanging out with the group themselves for two hours.

"Thank you for everything," Yuugi politely said as he received his ticket. "This is such an awesome opportunity!"

Kaiba shrugged surprisingly meekly as he assured him was nothing. Yuugi and his group were easily impressed.

Jounouchi accept his ticket with a wide grin and asked," Alright, how much was it?"

With a stern look his way, Anzu whispered," Does it matter?" She wanted to tag on, _stop being rude_.

"Course it does. I'm a working man, ya'know, I can pay for myself," he replied, puffing out his chest.

"You really don't have to," Kaiba dismissed, turning to Honda to hand out the next ticket. After a meal that probably cost one of his paychecks and a luxurious limo ride to the event, not to mention completely provided for accommodations for the entirety of the event, Kaiba was amused that a ticket was where he drew the line. However, he was less than eager to reveal a price that Jounouchi couldn't pay.

"Don't be ridiculous; you're hurting my pride."

Suppressing the urge to roll his eyes, Kaiba gave in and said," Three thousand yen. I got a partnership discount for all of my company's history with their group."

Jounouchi made a big display of bringing out his wallet and fishing out his money, though he only had two 1000 bills and had to supplement with coins. One 500 piece, two 100's, twenty-three 10's, twelve 5's, and nine 1's.

With a handful of change, Kaiba deadpanned," That one yen will be collecting compound interest at a rate of twenty-five percent a day."

"That's extortion," Jounouchi complained, shoving his hands in his pockets like he was wondering how he got this lot in life.

No one else failed to see the irony of the situation.

After arriving and checking into the largest hotel most of them had ever seen, everyone was left to their own devices for the night. The concert began tomorrow, but not until just after noon. No one had an early morning ahead of them, and they were probably planning accordingly. The event had plenty available before the official concert started, and it would be going throughout the night only ending with the beginning of the opening act.

Having long ago gotten used to the typical parties before events such as these, Kaiba didn't really feel any need to involve himself. That, and he was already exhausted of people. He stared out his hotel room's window, watching as mountains began to disappear into the foggy dusk.

"Everyone is psyched for tomorrow," Bakura said, more to announce his presence directly behind Kaiba than to actually comment on the palpable excitement of the group. Hugging close, he enjoyed the comfortable silence once again blanketing the room.

There was something on his mind though, and he debated whether he should ask or not. "This couldn't have costed only three thousand yen. You can buy a pair of jeans for that," Bakura finally reasoned aloud. Well, he did. Kaiba's socks probably cost that. "Why did you bother giving him a price at all?"

Kaiba hummed softly, but answered," People don't like to feel like freeloaders." It had been a long and awkward lesson for him on how to deal with the average middle class he surrounded himself with when he decided on Domino High.

"What did it really cost?" Bakura couldn't help it. He was a curious man.

"The tickets? About Eighty thousand yen each."

Bakura balked at this, his jaw actually dropping. He hadn't spent that much on his whole Monster World Table. "I'm going to pretend they're three thousand."

" _Your guilt at receiving things is nice and all, but how about we work on getting a game in._ "

Bakura rolled his eyes and flatly informed Kaiba," The thief would like to play a game."

Kaiba nodded in acknowledgement, but asked," Don't you want to spend time with your friends?"

" _Our_ friends will be there tomorrow, and we'll see more than enough of them over the next few days."

This was true, and a one on one game would make the rest of the world disappear, which would definitely help prepare Kaiba for the non-stop attention he'd get tomorrow. He didn't exactly blend into crowds well.

The thief grinned at their exchange, pleased to be getting his way. " _Hey_ ," he called a tad smugly. He blinked his eyes to acclimate to the physical world and smiled widely. "How about a game of two-ten-jack?"


	12. Hiding

The first day of the concert proper had an opening act that everyone else seemed to know, but Bakura was clueless about. He thought maybe the one song stood out as something that played at the shopping center he frequented. He only knew the main act's songs because he looked them up ahead of time.

The audience was so quiet, pulsing their glowsticks and light sticks to the beat of the music. It was kind of magical. Bakura looked around, from his friends to the farther away people on either side. Everyone was in tune and Bakura felt the thrum of the music in his chest echoing energy pooling around him.

His eyes fell to Kaiba's face, observing how even in such a high energy setting, Kaiba could manage to display no emotion at all. He wondered if it was all an act, since he was in the public limelight always, to give away nothing. Was he protecting his interests? Avoiding showing too much favoritism to one client? 

"Hey," Anzu whispered into his ear, leaning very close and placing hand over his casted arm. "Have you seen my purse? I know I shoved it at one of you guys earlier."

"Oh, uh," Bakura looked to his feet, ducking down to reach behind and grab the purse. "Here, sorry." He automatically apologised out of habit for taking a bit long.

Like everyone always did, she tapped his shoulder and chided him that he didn't have to apologize so much. "It's not like you're hiding it," she added on good-naturedly. True, she had been the one to shove it at him so she could lean close for a high-five a passing celebrity during a concert break and he'd merely wanted to keep it safe.

Bakura looked away guiltily as she ran off to the bathroom or vending machine. She had only meant the bag, but something about her sentence just made him crawl with discomfort. He _was_ hiding something. He had been for nearly three months now. 

How did he go about admitting the thief was back? Bakura had to figure it out, for the thief's sake, for his own. It kept him up at night, worrying about how he would tell them, when he would, how they would take it. The thief was suffering being in the dark, and Bakura was suffering the guilt. It just wasn't healthy- but Bakura was afraid to come clean.

He grabbed Kaiba's hand, needing reassurance and deciding the risk to his public image was low in the dark.

Kaiba curiously looked over, but squeezed back. He gave no other sign of his steadfast presence, but it was enough for Bakura.

~~  
~~

The next day was the main act and they had absolutely killed it on stage. Bakura wasn't a huge fan of theirs, but after the performance he was feeling pretty amped about them. Kaiba's tickets were a pretty sweet setup. They were on their way from the concert to the backstage after party. Yesterday they had gotten to check out where the equipment was kept and the special effects booth.

It was rather cool outside, the onset of fall having brought beautiful weather but already turning winter crisp. Kaiba was glad the concert had dodged the occasional heat wave typical this early in the season. 

Getting to the party should have been a short uneventful walk between buildings. Kaiba only noticed something was wrong when his undercover bodyguard flashed him a look of concern. As cliché as it was, time slowed down. He was busy turning towards the danger as he lifted his heavy briefcase. Kaiba locked eyes with the man drawing the gun, the clearly unpracticed hands fumbling for the safety.

The gun was held out as Kaiba thrust his briefcase in place, the dull shine of the gun flickering with the kickback of the first shot.

Kaiba felt the impact in his shoulder as the case wrenched under the bullet's force. His eyes immediately darted to Bakura's, seeing the widened eyes glimmer between gentle and harsh. If the thief was retreating so easily, the emergency must…

Kaiba's gaze returned to the shooter as Jounouchi bowled him over, the tackle sending them both to the ground. A second shot went off. Kaiba's bodyguard was still at his side, his own gun still being readied for action.

The scratching slide of the gun as it skittered against concrete brought everything to normal speed for Kaiba. Bakura fell back into Anzu's arms as the briefcase slammed into him, the stray bullet lodged into now heavily dented metal.

Honda jumped for the gun, quickly unloading it, then looking at his hands with wonder. "I never thought I'd actually get to do that someday," he commented with an incredulous grin. He'd watched a lot of crime investigation shows as a kid, the idea of how to handle the gun just kind of came to him.

A sickening crunch of bone was followed with Jounouchi flopping over to the side exhaustedly. He'd planted a good punch to knock the other unconscious, not wanting to find out what other weapons he had at his disposal. The bullrush knocked the wind out of him too as they hit the ground, he'd have to collect himself for a second of two before standing.

Half a dozen men who were dressed in normal party-going clothes but built like weightlifters and wearing super serious expressions swarmed the unconscious man, and Jounouchi had to squirm out of the way to not be trampled. A broad hand was offered in front of him, and Jounouchi took it, hefting himself to his feet.

He was a little surprised it was Kaiba who had helped him up, but he wasn't as surprised as Kaiba looked.

"You acted more quickly than my trained professional staff," Kaiba said, trying to cover his astonishment. Few had ever shown such selfless courage on his behalf before. He didn't want his gratitude to leak into his voice though. Jounouchi didn't have to see him as some waxing sentimentalist.

With an amused laugh, Jounouchi clapped him on the shoulder and said," Well, a' course. I've got a lot more at stake than a paycheck. I'm protecting a friend." He dismissed it like it was nothing, running back over to the group to make sure everyone was okay. He looked back like he expected Kaiba to follow, and Kaiba walked over briskly.

As he approached, he could see Bakura was standing on his own again, looking a little shaken, but otherwise alright. Kaiba let go of his breath that he didn't even realize he'd been holding.

Anzu closed the distance and hugged Jounouchi as he got close, congratulating him on being a big damn hero, and Honda was arguing he should get some recognition too with how well he handled the gun. They'd all just survived his assassination attempt, and they were acting like morons, Kaiba thought, but the corner of his mouth pulled into a small smile. Bakura didn't miss it, and Kaiba supposed it was okay he couldn't hide it as they exchanged relieved glances. No one was hurt, and Kaiba almost felt comfortable with the camaraderie.

Almost- he flinched when Anzu gave him a sudden hug before making her way over to Honda to assure him he had been cool too. He wasn't really used to abrupt contact, and he doubted he ever would be.

"Woah," Yuugi gasped as he saw Kaiba's briefcase. The bullet was flattened into the small crater it made. "So that's why you always carry that around."

"No, I'm just always ready to duel."

Yuugi looked up to him with an understanding, lopsided smile as his hand automatically went for his belt. They were two sides of the same coin.

"I hope I didn't ruin your cards," Bakura commented as he walked up behind Yuugi and peered at the briefcase with a small frown.

"You didn't," Kaiba assured him, not having to check on them to give his word. Bakura wasn't at fault in any capacity for some madman with a gun. Maybe he should elaborate when they weren't in public, he thought, upset that Bakura could blame himself for being saved. It also didn't hurt that the briefcase was incredibly reinforced, and the likelihood that even one card had been damaged was under one percent.

Kaiba's attention was grabbed by a called out," Sir!"

The guard ran up to him, dressed in trendy street clothes and looking largely like a normal concert attendee aside from his readied gun. "We're coordinating with the police as we speak. We should have you evacuated in case there is still a threat."

"No," Kaiba decided as he looked back the group. Yuugi and everyone was really looking forward to going behind stage, and he wasn't one to back down and let others dictate his next move anyways. If there was still a threat, he'd face it. "We will proceed with our plans. Kaiba Seto doesn't let common criminals get in the way of his plans."

"R-right, sir. Forgive me for presuming," he said, bowing much too professionally for the street clothes he wore. 

"Are you sure?" Yuugi asked, walking up beside Kaiba. "Someone just tried to kill you."

"Two assassination attempts in one month," Kaiba mulled over, ignoring the question as he thought over the two attempts on his life. If Jounouchi hadn't jumped into action, there surely would have been a fatality today, and he'd been so lucky that the explosion in the elevator hadn't done more damage than it had. As it was, Bakura had nearly died in both events, and Kaiba knew he had to get to the bottom of this.

Jounouchi thought over the attempts and commented," Man, someone really doesn't like you."

"But I have such a warm and outgoing personality," Kaiba deadpanned, appreciating when the other laughed at his small attempt at a joke. He'd been told sometimes his humor was too dry, surely a result of having so many English and French speaking business partners. Encouraging the others to continue to the backstage meet-up, Kaiba hung back with a guard of his for a brief moment.

Leaning in close, he discreetly ordered," Hold him for questioning. We will take care of this privately."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm honestly so grateful for all the feedback. Thank you, everybody, for making this the best story posting I've ever experienced. I haven't felt this kind of motivation to continue with a project since I was a freshman in high school. I know it probably seems a little sappy, but all you guys are what's keeping me going, and I just want to thank you from the bottom on my heart for all the support.
> 
> This marks the end of "Vek zhivi, vek uchis", but stay tuned for the next installment! Still making Wednesdays, so expect "Entre Bromas y Veras" on 9/14!


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